Device and method for controlling dehydration during freeze-drying
AssigneeAlcatel
InventorCyrille Nomine
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A device for controlling dehydration during freeze-drying in an enclosure connected to a vacuum line includes an analyzer for analyzing the gases contained in the enclosure, the gas analyzer comprising a system for ionizing the gases comprising a plasma source in contact with the gases combined with a generator adapted to generate a plasma from the gases and a system for analyzing ionized gases comprising a radiation sensor situated in the vicinity of the area of generation of the plasma connected to apparatus for analyzing evolution of the radiation spectrum emitted by the plasma. The plasma source is preferably produced by inductive coupling and the analyzer for analyzing the evolution of the radiation spectrum is preferably an optical emission spectrometer.
Claims12
A device for controlling dehydration during freeze-drying in an enclosure connected to a vacuum line, said device including an analyzer for analyzing the gases contained in said enclosure and said gas analyzer comprising:
- a system for ionizing said gases comprising a plasma source in contact with said gases combined with a generator adapted to generate a plasma from said gases, and
- a system for analyzing ionized gases comprising a radiation sensor situated in the vicinity of the area of generation of said plasma connected to apparatus for analyzing evolution of the radiation spectrum emitted by said plasma.
A method of controlling dehydration during freeze-drying in an enclosure connected to a vacuum line by means of a control device including an analyzer for analyzing the gases contained in said enclosure and which comprises a system for ionizing gases comprising a plasma source in contact with said gases combined with a generator adapted to generate a plasma from said gases, and a system for analyzing ionized gases comprising a radiation sensor in the vicinity of the area of generation of said plasma connected to apparatus for analyzing evolution of the radiation spectrum emitted by said plasma, in which method the end of the primary desiccation step of the dehydration operation is detected by analyzing the gases in said enclosure using a plasma source connected to apparatus for analyzing the evolution of the radiation spectrum emitted by said plasma.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.